Pitching Perfection

Yankees' David Cone achieves a flawless game

by Mike Morrison

On Sunday, July 18, New York Yankees pitcher David Cone accomplished one of the rarest feats in sports - the perfect game. Cone was brilliant as he set down 27 consecutive Montreal Expos batters to lead the Yankees to a 6-0 victory. No hits, no walks, no errors, no hit-batsmen.

Since 1880, only 15 other pitchers have achieved perfection on the mound. Historic Yankee Stadium was also home to the previous perfect game, thrown by Yankee fan favorite David Wells in May, 1998.

The Most Perfect Game?

Arguably the most famous perfect game in history was thrown by former Yankee Don Larsen in the 1956 World Series. His 2-0 masterpiece in game 5 against the Brooklyn Dodgers gave the Yankees a 3-2 series lead and sparked them to their fifth World Series Championship of the decade.

Coincidentally, Larsen was in attendance on Sunday for a ceremony honoring Yankee legend Yogi Berra. Berra was the catcher during Larsen's gem. Prior to Sunday's game, Berra borrowed current Yankee catcher Joe Girardi's glove to receive the game's ceremonial first pitch from Larsen in a dramatic reenactment of that day 43 years ago. No one realized the drama that was to come.

In 1908, New York's Hooks Wiltse was one strike away from a perfect game against Philadelphia when he hit a batter. What made it even worse was that the batter he hit was the Philadelphia pitcher. Wiltse did go on to record a no-hitter, but his bid for perfection was lost.

In 1917, Boston's Babe Ruth started a game against the Washington Senators. As lore has it, Ruth walked lead-off batter Ray Morgan and became so enraged that he punched the umpire in the face and was ejected. Ernie Shore came in to replace Ruth, promptly caught Morgan trying to steal and retired the remaining 26 batters. Because he didn't start, his perfect game is not considered official.